Rep. Jayapal to Rep. Massie: ‘The Undertone from Your Side Is that Somehow People Who Are Coming Illegally Are Trying to Break into the Country’

MASSIE: “We accept illegal immigrants because the climate is changing — “
Jayapal: “Mr. Massie, if you understood the immigration system, you would know that there are different categories for people to be able to come to the United States to apply. There is an asylum category, there’s a refugee category, there is a category for employment, there is a category for being with family, and there are a number of reasons that drive people to come to the United States.”
MASSIE: “Which one is the category that allows them to break into our country illegally because the climate has changed where they live?”
Jayapal: “Mr. Massie, I don’t think that people are breaking into the country illegally. And I just want to say, I think, looking around the room, that I might be the only person who has actually gone through the legal immigration system, and when people differentiate between legal immigration and illegal immigration, the undertone from your side is that somehow people who are coming illegally are trying to break into the country, that are trying to do something wrong, when, in fact, it took me 17 years to go through the legal immigration system. And I am not disparaging the people who are trying to come to this country for all the reasons that drive people to come to the United States.”